The assessor’s job is to place a value on all taxable real and personal property, within the county as of January 1, the assessment date set by statute. All county assessor’s offices are regulated, and overseen, by The Missouri State Tax Commission. Monthly visits by field representatives, and annual spot-review of properties, aid them in evaluating the assessor’s compliance with the statute requirements.

There are two types of local property taxes, Real Estate and Personal Property. Real Estate property has three subclasses—Residential @ 19% of market value; Agricultural @ 12% of production value; and All Other @ 32% of true value in money.

State Statute 137.280 RSMo., requires every taxpayer to turn in a listing of their personal property, as of January 1, to the assessor between January 1, and March 1. Failure to submit a listing by March 1, can result in a late assessment penalty, up to $100.00.

The County Assessor is responsible for placing a value on all taxable read and personal property as a basis for the county board to levy taxes. Assessor must also obtain the required continuing education hours to be recertified.

The County Board of Equalization hearings convened July 2007 and were concluded by August 2007. In the meantime the schools and other districts have conducted their public tax levy hearings, so the County Clerk will start receiving the certified tax levies from the State Auditor’s office early in October. Then by the end of October early November the Clerk will apply the tax levies to the county assessed values and the collector will generate tax statements to be mailed to taxpayers.

Special thanks to The Salem News for the generous use of many of the photos in this website.